Letter: Shopping - Why Harrogate is so special

James Street, Harrogate

Published:13:00Saturday 24 October 2015

Wouldn’t Robert Ogden, of all people, concede that it’s the quality of the shops, not the prevalence of the asphalt which draws people to James Street? (Advertiser October15). Many readers will remember when Cambridge and Oxford Streets were pedestrianised. As now, the prophets of doom were in full voice; if anyone was forced to walk more than the width of a footpath to get to a shop, Harrogate was finished.

Thirty years on, it’s difficult to believe that we used to have to run the endless gauntlet of parked and parking cars when shopping there.

In a recent letter, one reader stated that “cars are not nuisances”. But in their ever increasing numbers, they are - including mine. Remembering that the increasing anarchy of the private car is not unique to Harrogate, the usual threats of “going elsewhere” invite the response “but where?” Meadowhall etc, don’t offer what Harrogate does and a walk round their vast car parks would be far less inviting than one round our more people-friendly town centre.

What seems to be lacking is a positive and integral inclusion of a York style park-and-ride service